Muscle fiber disarray in common heart diseases.

Myocardial fiber disarray was found at necropsy in each of 53 hearts, 33 from patients with cardiovascular disease--systemic hypertension (12 patients), coronary heart disease (17 patients) or cor pulmonale (4 patients)--and 20 from patients with a normal heart. The myocardial fiber disarray was of mild degree in all 53 patients and, although similar to that observed by others in hearts of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the amount of myocardial fiber disarray per heart was considerably less than that observed in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.